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Chapter V - Constructing the Executive
and Judicial Branches Constructing the Executive and Judicial Branches
After setting up a national tax system and assembling the Bill of Rights, Congress boldly moved to fashion the executive and judicial branches, They readily agreed to keep the three departments created by the Articles of Confederation - the departments of treasury, war and foreign affairs - to which they added the administrative posts of attorney general and postmaster general. However, this initial accord ended with disagreement about whether or not the executive department heads would be "responsible solely to the president." After much earnest debate in both the House and Senate, the congressmen agreed that the president should indeed have such authority.
Finally, Congress organized the judicial branch with the Judicial Act of 1789. Since it stipulated that federal laws and treaties be considered "the supreme law of the land," the act designed a supreme Court with six members - a chief justice and five associate justices. Any decision in the state courts which disputed federal powers would be appealed to the supreme Court. Further, the Judiciary Act efficiently established a system of state district courts and courts of appeals. One of the most far-reaching supreme Court cases prior to the 1800s was Chisholm vs. Georgia (1793), which established that states could be freely sued in federal courts by citizens of other states. The Eleventh Amendment, however, overturned this unpopular decision, stating that "Judicial Power of the United States" could not extend to any lawsuit "commenced or prosecuted against one of the United States by citizens of another state or citizens of any Foreign State."
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